


Reliving the Nightmare

by Interstellararia



Series: The Angel and Devil of Omega [3]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Akuze, M/M, Some more backstory info for z, he's the sole survivor of the incident at 19, that messes with him big time and he still has nightmares about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 22:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16313864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interstellararia/pseuds/Interstellararia
Summary: Zuriel often has trouble sleeping. Tonight brings him back to his first major mission on Akuze.





	Reliving the Nightmare

“So what do you think happened to those guys up there?” One of the soldiers asks. 

“Could be the scientists did something and wiped themselves out on accident?” Another points out. 

Zuriel Shepard listens to the chatter of his unit as he cleans his sniper rifle. The team was on Akuze, responding to unexplained radio silence from a team that was sent on a mission earlier in the day. They were required to check in with the base every 20 minutes, but they’d been silent for an hour. 

A flick against his ear catches him off guard. His best friend in the unit, Kendrick Jones loops an arm around his shoulders, playfully ruffling his hair. “What do you think, kid?” 

Kid. That’s what the unit called him. Correctly so. He was 19 compared to the rest of the squad who were older than 25. Everyone else had cool nicknames, but he was just Kid. 

“Not sure, but we need to be careful.” Zuriel bites his lip as the transport hits a bit of a bump. 

“We’re getting close to the site. Keep an eye out.” The commander’s voice comes over the radio. “The scouts haven’t reported back.” 

Zuriel puts away his cleaning tools then grabs his helmet. 

“The plan is to surround the site on all sides.” The commander’s voice crackles slightly. “We’ll send in a group of scouts and go in with the Mako’s cannons if necessary. We don’t know what we’re up against out here.” 

In moments, the squad is at the site. 

“Come on, kid.” Kendrick shoves his helmet on and exits the Mako, with Zuriel and the rest of the group following suit. They quickly jog over to the nearest hill, where Zuriel quickly lies down at the top and brings the scope up to his eye. Through that, he can see other portions of the squad slowly making their way into the camp. Everything looks devastated. 

“What are you seeing down there?” One squad member asks.

“No movement from the scientists, just our group. They got wiped out but I can’t tell how. No explosions but the ground’s been turned up.” Zuriel takes his gaze away from the scope and looks at the squad. 

“Let’s get with the rest of the team then, be careful. Kid, I want you to stay here and be a lookout. If we’ve got mercs on our hands, I want to know beforehand.” Kendrick checks his rifle and nods to signal the squad to move out.  
“Yes sir.” Zuriel returns to looking through the scope. He focuses in on what he sees, ignoring the humming of the Mako behind him. 

The ground shaking underneath him catches him off guard. It makes him bounce and slam his face down on the scope by accident, cutting along his cheekbone. Zuriel curses as his comrades do the same over the radio chatter. 

He’s about to ask if his team is alright when a massive creature sends several people flying when it bursts from the dirt with a screech. Spitting acid and diving towards a group trying to back up, it easily takes down nearly half of the squad. 

Zuriel’s hands shake as he stares down the scope. He’s always had excellent aim, but he’s not at a good angle to find any weak spots. He curses and just starts firing like the rest of his squad is doing. 

Wave after wave of his team gets wiped out, and Zuriel can’t sit on that hill anymore. He puts his sniper rifle away and runs into the fray, grabbing a stray assault rifle, which thankfully still had a few clips. He yells as he fires at the creature. 

It dives back down into the dirt, and from all the rumbling, it’s certainly not done with them. It pops back up, sending debris flying, tossing Zuriel with it. He lands quite hard on his left arm. Pain shoots through his body and he clenches his teeth. That was most definitely broken. He does his best to scurry away, but the creature heads straight for him. Catching the side of his face, he’s sent flying again. It hurts. 

The next several moments pass by in a blur. More of his team getting killed. 

A blast from a Mako pierces the skin of the massive creature, and it angrily dives down on the car, crushing it between its jaws. 

Zuriel can’t seem to move. He helplessly watches as it takes out everyone. Seeing no one else to attack, it loses interest and goes back underground. 

“Can anyone hear me?” Zuriel quietly speaks into his mic. 

All he receives is static. 

He struggles to stand, aches and severe pain shooting through his body. He finally manages to get himself upright and heads towards one of the transports that hadn’t been crushed. Getting inside, he finds the radio and hits call. 

The base responds quickly.

“We got attacked by something, it was huge…” Zuriel manages to wheeze out as he slumps over the steering wheel. “Please send help…” 

Formal lingo be damned. He was hurting way too much to focus properly. 

The young man blacks out, and the next thing he knows, he’s in the medical bay of a ship. 

-

Zuriel jolts awake in confusion and alarm. It had been years since Akuze, but he still had nightmares about it. All his friends were gone in just a moment. The family that he had was destroyed, and he didn’t know what do do with himself. Everyone praised him a hero for surviving what happened, but in reality, he was just a scared kid on his first real mission. 

He climbs out of bed and begins to wander the spacious apartment. It was given to him by Captain Anderson during the Reaper War, and thankfully hadn’t suffered that much damage. He jogs down the stairs and heads straight for the bar to make himself a drink. 

Little did he know that he woke up his husband when making all that noise. The turian followed him downstairs. 

“You dreamed about it again, didn’t you?” Garrus’ deep voice is soft as he stares at Zuriel, who’s bare chest and arms are covered in an abundance of scars. 

The young man nods and runs a hand through his dark hair while letting out a sigh. 

“Sometimes I wish I could forget it happened.” 

“And drinking isn’t going to fix that.” Garrus holds out a hand. “Come on back to bed. Try to focus on the good things. Remember the grounding techniques we practiced?” 

“Yeah.” Zuriel intertwines his fingers with his husband’s and leans in close. Breathing out slowly, he focuses on Garrus’ cool skin against his cheek, how rough the scales on his shoulders feel. 

Garrus starts to lead the two back to their room. Heading up the stairs, Zuriel still focuses on what he can feel, as well as the sounds of Garrus next to him. 

They make it back to the room and get back into bed. Garrus pulls a weighted blanket over the two of them and pulls his husband close. 

“Focus on me and sleep, my love.”


End file.
